School Finance - Actual Instructional Expenses (2005–2024)

Definition

Actual Instruction Expense - Includes all general fund expenditures as reported on the annual financial report by the school districts except those expenditures for health services, transportation, debt service, capital outlay, homebound instruction, early intervention, community/junior college education programs and payments to area vocational-technical schools.  Deductions are also made for selected local, state and federal revenues and for refunds of prior year expenditures and receipts from other local education agencies.  It is calculated in accord with Section 2501 of the “Pennsylvania Public School Code of 1949.”

Actual Instruction Expense per Weighted Average Daily Membership (AIE/WADM) - Actual instruction expense divided by the weighted average daily membership.

Weighted Average Daily Membership (WADM) - The assignment of weight by grade level to the average daily membership.  The current weighting is half-time kindergarten at 0.5, full-time kindergarten at 1.0, elementary (grades 1-6) at 1.0, and secondary (grades 7-12) at 1.36.

Data Source

Pennsylvania Department of Education, Bureau of Budget and Fiscal Management.

Notes

The state instructional expense per weighted ADM represents the median figure.

ND = No Data Available.

Last Updated

2025-07